Best guest appearance, musical division

We havea ton of music threads and probably done of before, but ...

Listening to "Born to Run" today. Randy Brecker's haunting trumpet absolutely makes "Meeting Across the River."

BTW, the Bracker Brothers "Back to Back" album is outstanding.

 

Michael McDonald on a lot of stuff, but probably used to best effect on Steely Dan's Aja.

 

duane allman, (slide?) guitar, 'layla'

eric clapton, lead guitar, 'while my guitar gently weeps' 8) 8)

 

Going to be tough to top.

 

Anita Pallenberg (Keith's girlfriend), Marianne Faithfull and Jimmy Miller do the 'woo woo' with Richards, wyman and Jones on 'Sympathy for the Devil.'

 

Paul McCartney loudly eating celery on "Vegetables" by The Beach Boys.

 

Another Paul McCartney: Playing drums on Steve Miller's "My Dark Hour." Here's the story of how it happened: http://www.beatlesbible.com/1969/05/09/paul-mccartney-plays-drums-steve-miller-my-dark-hour/

Also: Mick Jagger's backing vocals on "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon.

 

I think Duane Allman was actually billed as part of Derek and the Dominos so I'm not sure if that can be called a "guest appearance."

Gotta be Clapton on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

Up until then, studio musicians on Beatles records were kept pretty anonymous. Alan Civil, who played the French horn solo on "For No One" on Revolver in 1966, was supposedly quite a hotshot session player, but how much of household names are hotshot French horn session players?

Nicky Hopkins did the electric piano on "Revolution" a couple months before the White Album but while his piano part is not "buried in the mix," it's not the dominant instrument of the whole song like Clapton on "Weeps."

 

Michael Jackson backing up Rockwell on Somebody's Watching Me.

Helps to have family connections I guess.

 

David Bowie on Under Pressure by Queen

Bowie showed up at the studio to do backing vocals on a different song, but this song, one of my favorite songs, was the end result of the visit.

 

Eddie Van Halen on "Beat It"

 

Are we including session work?

Duane Allman did tons, as did Jimmy Page.

Allman on the Boz Scaggs' version of "Loan Me a Dime" is oustanding. The nekkid picture of him on the album is pretty funny.

Les Dudek is a great guitar player:

Then, on October 29th, 1971, the unthinkable occurred - a fellow Florida musician, Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident. At the time, Les was playing with bandmate Peter Schless, a keyboard player from Venice, Florida in their band Power. Peter knew Dickey Betts and had heard he was looking for players. So Les and Peter drove to Macon, Georgia to jam with Dickey. A few weeks after returning to Florida, Les was called back to Georgia. As a result, Les was invited to record with The Allman Brothers Band. That's Les you hear playing guitar harmonies with Dickey Betts on "Ramblin' Man" and the intro acoustic guitar on "Jessica", their two biggest hits from the Brothers and Sisters album (Capricorn Records).

http://www.lesdudek.com/bio/